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Food and drink should be banned from the theatre, Imelda Staunton has argued, as she laments the decline of concentration among modern audiences.

Staunton, the award-winning actress who recently took to the stage for Gypsy, said she cannot understand why people “can’t engage in just one thing”, watching a play without needing to constantly graze in their seat.

Her words come after heated debate in the theatre industry over a trend for audiences to snack during performances.

Earlier this year, producer Richard Jordan revealed he had endured “possibly the worst West End audience I have ever encountered” during a performance of Doctor Faustus, including one group eating a takeaway McDonald’s during the show.

“What amazed me most was this audience...could see nothing wrong in talking, eating and taking pictures throughout the show - or complaining when asked to stop,” he said.

In an interview with Radio Times magazine, Staunton said she would “definitely” move to ban eating in theatres altogether.

Doctor Faustus, starring Kit Harington

“I don’t know why people can’t engage in just one thing,” she said. “I don’t understand this obsession with having to eat or drink something at every moment of the day.”

Even at home, with her actor husband Jim Carter, she said she refused to dine in front of the television, admitting: “There might, at one point in the evening, be a very small, very naughty bowl of ice cream. “But that’s not noisy.”

When asked for her views on British television, the actress added: “I’m not sure that so much choice is necessarily a good thing.

Staunton and her husband Jim Carter

“I don’t want American television here. It’s channel after channel after channel, and that dilutes things.

“It’s like going to a big supermarket and being overwhelmed by the choice of biscuits.

“When Downton Abbey was on, people were talking about it. People talked about Sherlock and I was really annoyed I hadn’t watched it!

“But now, that unifying thing of people all talking about one piece of television is disappearing.”